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Dubai refiner Enoc will expand Fujairah fuel storage

Emirates National Oil Co has a long- term plan for growth, chief executive says

UAE FIRM: Enoc is a partner with Dutch storage terminal operator Royal Vopak in the Fujairah facility (Getty Images)

By Bloomberg

Wed 05 Jan 2011 04:21 PM

Emirates National Oil Co plans to expand refined oil
products storage capacity in the UAE sheikhdom of Fujairah for trading and local
supply, the head of Dubai’s government-owned refiner said on Wednesday.

“There will be an expansion for sure,” chief executive
officer Saeed Khoory said about the joint venture storage facility Vopak
Horizon Fujairah Ltd. “The company has a long- term plan for growth.”

Enoc, as the refiner is known, is a partner with Dutch
storage terminal operator Royal Vopak in the Fujairah facility. It also has
its own tanks in ports in Dubai and Fujairah, Khoory said.

The Vopak Horizon venture is raising capacity to 2.1 million
cubic meters from 1.5 million cubic meters by adding tanks by the end of 2011.
The venture will also add more capacity after a land reclamation project along
the coast, he said.

Enoc uses the tanks run by the Vopak Horizon venture for
fuel trading and uses tank space it holds on its own to store and blend fuel
for domestic use. Enoc may add about 250,000 barrels of additional storage
capacity to the tanks it runs on its own within two years, he said.

The company has 200,000 cubic meters of storage capacity for
oil products in the Fujairah port and 2 million cubic meters of storage volume
in Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.

Enoc completed an expansion of its Jebel Ali refinery last
year and the facility began operating at its full capacity of 120,000 barrels a
day in the fourth quarter. The facility, located in a port area along Dubai’s
coast, processes condensate, a light oil-like liquid found with natural gas to
produce reformate, a product used for gasoline production. Enoc blends fuel
additives in its storage tanks to provide the gasoline it sells in Dubai and neighboring
sheikhdoms.

Expanding reformate production to 35,000 barrels a day means
Enoc is self-sufficient in meeting gasoline demand at its own service stations
in Dubai and neighboring emirates, Tayyeb Al Mulla, CEO of the company’s
refining and marketing unit, said on Wednesday. The company also participates
in tenders from companies seeking to buy gasoline components, sells jet fuel at
Dubai’s airports and exports naphtha, a product of the refining process, to
Asia, Al Mulla said.

Enoc may plan some minor maintenance at the Jebel Ali
refinery for the fourth quarter as it monitors operation of the new units, Al
Mulla said.

Khoory and al Mulla were speaking at the opening of what the
company calls a “green” service station, which uses energy saving technology, solar
power, lubricants that are less polluting than normal products and carwashes
that cut water use.

The Green Station also uses a vapor recovery system that
captures fuel fumes normally lost into the atmosphere and pumps them back into
storage tanks where they return to liquid form and can be sold as gasoline, Al
Mulla said.